Heart and soul

Man of the week: Dave Whelan - says Man City are "ruining the heart and soul of football" by inflating prices and artificially skewing the market. "Money has gone through the window because some Arabian fellas or oil-rich sheikh has come in and said, 'Pay £90m for that player.' It is totally barmy and we all know that. The game will suffer in the end." · 2003: Whelan's JJB Sports fined £6.7m by the OFT over claims they exploited fans by using inflated price-fixing of replica shirts to artificially skew the market. "This ruling," said Whelan, "makes me wonder what's happened to justice in this land."

Fifa news

Best Fifa gesture last week: naming Palestine inaugural winners of the "Fifa Development Award" for "keeping football alive in the region". In October, Sepp Blatter backed the Peres Peace House in Israel, established to "combat prejudice and promote understanding in Palestinian-Israeli relations". Fifa's aim, says Sepp: "To touch the world and build a better future."

• 2003: Fifa senior vice-president and head of Argentina's FA Julio Grondona forced to apologise after telling a live TV audience: "I do not believe a Jew can ever be a referee. It's hard work and, you know, Jews don't like hard work." ("He's a monumental man!" says Sepp. "We are friends for ever!")

No misapprehension

• 14 November 2008, Norwich chairman Roger Munby at the club AGM: "A very warm welcome to Glenn Roeder - welcome, Glenn, to your first AGM... Glenn, be under no misapprehension whatsoever that everyone at Norwich City is with you every inch of the way. Most here are long enough in the football tooth to realise that, having missed promotion back to the Premiership first time round, it is a long and hard road to re-equip, rebuild and remotivate a squad. We're right behind you."

Best pledges

Transfer window - highlights so far:

1) James Beattie, November 2008, slams reports that he'll quit Sheffield United in January: "My long-term future is here - I'd be happy to finish my career at United. I came here to do a job, to get us back in the top flight. Why would I want to leave for another club? I've never been happier anywhere."

• January: Joins Stoke. "I'm delighted!"

2) Craig Bellamy, December 2008: "It's that time of year again - there's always a lot of speculation about people going in the transfer window. But I'm very happy at West Ham - I'm never going to go in and ask for a move."

Standing firm

Arsène Wenger says he'd never let Arsenal be financially exploited by club or player financial demands. "We're in negotiations [for Andrei Arshavin] - but we have our principles."

2008: Arsenal accounts reveal it took £10m (£5m wages, plus a private £5m one-off fee) to keep Thierry Henry for one more season. ("I stayed for love," said Thierry in 2006, before the accounts were made public. "I simply could not face leaving the fans. I've never played in Spain and now I never will. This is where my heart is. And my decision to stay or leave was never going to be based on economic considerations. People want to give you a label as a footballer where it's all about money, money, money - they should stop talking about that. It's not. It's about emotion, respect, loyalty - and real love.")

Journalists: idiots

• 14 Jan, Ramón Calderón, Real Madrid: "We were all unpleasantly surprised to read the allegations made by the newspaper Marca. The media must stop publishing lies. I've put a lot of effort into this job. Why should I resign? It's not in my character to resign, and it would not help the team. It would simply be irresponsible."

• 16 Jan: Resigns.

Love romp news

Bayern Munich's Luca Toni is the footballer most Italian women "would demand to get naked", says a survey by Novella 2000 magazine. Top of the "best option for extra-marital love romp" category: Gennaro Gattuso, Amauri Carvalho and David Beckham.

And finally

Brazilian club Gremio say they "anticipate no obvious problems" from a new club policy of prescribing players Viagra ahead of high-altitude Copa Libertadores games. Club doctor Alarico Endres says the drug will improve blood oxygenisation. "The studies suggest it will give our boys a real edge for high-altitude games. The fuss about this is simply puerile: my studies show there will be no unseemly consequences."